HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN the Divine. Many in the West have become more interested in body integration, a wholistic spirituality, a growing hunger for deeper solitude and silence. They have found some helps in the practice of Yoga and Zen methods of transcendental meditation. Others have become attracted to Eastern Christianity,so rich in ancient,religious symbols. Beautiful Byzantine icons,the use of the Jesus Prayer and the haunting Liturgies open Westerners to a deep experience of God as Trinity through vivid sense impressions, not the least of which flow from stirring religious music as liquid mantras that open up the individual consciousness and even the depths of the unconscious. Have you noticed how your understanding and participation in the great pivotal mysteries of our Christian faith,such as the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ and the outpouring of His Spirit in Pentecost have radically changed as your prayer has become more contemplative and less cerebral? As ...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

LITURGICAL FEASTS AS SYMBOLS One of God's choicest blessings bestowed upon me was my entrance through priestly ordination in the Russian Byzantine Rite into Byzantine Christianity and A celebrated in the highly developed religious liturgical feasts that commemorate events or "happenings" recorded in Holy Scripture or expressed by the early teachers of the Church in dogmatic statements. Such teachings became "enfleshed" and expressed in birutiful,symbolic forms of liturgical worship. Celebrating Easter at midnight around the "tomb" of the Lord erected in the center of the Byzantine church was a "happening" now. And it was happening to us celebrating with Christ His historical resurrection. I was no longer a participator from the outside as one reads about someone else's history. It was becoming my participated history also as Jesus risen opened Himself to me and the celebrating community and allowed us to share in our resurrection in His new life,in His ascension,in His sending upon ...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

VARIOUS MEANINGS TO ASCENSION When we study the scriptural accounts of the ascension in the New Testament writings and in the liturgical celebration of this feast we discover two essential elements that are not contradictory. First,we find the biblical texts and these predominantly refer ascension to the exaltation of the risen Jesus Christ in all His humanity. But they also refer to the total Christ,the entire human race,including you and me, as exalted and lifted up into the inner life of the Trinity. This is our feast too" It should have great impact upon our daily lives if we can let go of only the historical elements and become present to the meta-historical encounter of ourselves with the exalted Christ. This is an "invisible" reality that does not admit of historical verification by eye-witnesses. There is also another element that we must consider and it is this that almost exclusively has preoccupied our prayer about the Ascension. This is tied intrinsically to the first an...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

A NOW RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION Father Pierre Benoit,o.P.,professor of New Testament at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, gives us the essential teaching that the Church holds out to us through the symbolic images used to express this teaching in the accounts of the resurrection and ascension: The essential teaching of Scripture which is to be retained by our faith is that Christ through His Resurrection and Ascension departed from this present world,corrupted by sin and destined for destruction and He entered anew world where God reigns as master and here matter is transformed,penetrated and dominated by the Spirit. It is a world that is real with a physical reality,like Christ's body itself,and which therefore occupies a "place" but a world which exists as yet only as a promise or in its embryo,the single risen body of Christ,and which will be definitively constituted and revealed only at the end of time when a "new heaven" and anew earth are to appear. What happened to Jesus in H...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

A POWERFUL INTERCESSOR AND HIGH PRIEST Much of the language used to described Christ's ascension is taken by the writers of the New Testament from cultic language of the Temple in Jerusalem. This is seen especially in the Book to the Hebrews. Jesus is exalted in glory and thus reaches the fullness of His kingly ministry as eternal HighPriest , interceding with the fullness of power on our behalf. Jesus ascends to the temple,the presence of God,to perform His priestly service and in doing this,namely,offering Himself as a sealing of the New Covenant with His blood,He is exalted in power and glory. "But now Christ has come,as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater,the more perfect tent,which is better than the one made by men's hands because it is not of this created order and he has entered the sanctuary once and for all...with his own blood,having won an eternal redemption for us" (Heb 9:11-12). Ascension is our great feast,too, fo...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

LANGUAGE AND MYSTERIOUS PRESENCE Now we can summarize what has been hinted at earlier in this teaching. To express the mysteries of Christ's resurrection into a meta-historical existence that is beyond any scientific proof and known only through the Holy Spirit, the New Testament writers and the Church teachers have used anthropomorphic images that are tied to an ancient cosmology or view of the world, earth,the heavens,the angelic choirs standing above the earth etc. We need to recognize the limitations of such language and images. This necessitates our transcending the limiting elements in such spatial terms by remembering that such images have value only as symbolic carriers of worshipers into the true reality to be experienced in and through those symbols. Can you still use such language as Jesus ascending into Heaven and sitting at the right hand of the Father? Such language is not to be strictly scientific and historical. It is effective communication insofar as the essential ...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

SHARING IN CHRIST'S ASCENSION When we move beyond the literalness of the time and space language of this feast as recorded in the New Testament,we can even now experience a sharing in Christ's Ascension. Here are some key points to be experienced daily that will make the Ascension are own feast-day as we stretch out to meet Christ in His Ascension. 1. first truth of this feast is that Christ has been taken into the sphere of the Trinity,Father,Son and Holy Spirit. His humanity is forever one within the Trinity. Now we,too,can share in His power and glory. 2. He is now present to us through His Spirit. He intercedes through His HighPriesthood of always offering Himself unto blood on our behalf. Now nothing is impossible to God and for us united with the mind of Christ by an inner revolution (Eph 4:17). 3. Now all our sins are taken away. We can by faith be absolutely certain that Jesus is now with the Father in His risen,glorified humanity,interceding on our behalf. Now the Eucharist...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ: May the mercies of our Lord Jesus Christ,the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you! The month of June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart. We are called to re-consecrate ourselves to the Heart of Jesus Christ. We are inspired to offer reparation to Him for the coldness and reluctance on the part of so many human beings,especially certain Christians who do not live their faith. But in today's world we are challenged,as Vatican ll's pastoral constitution on the Church in the Modern World tells us,to break through the dichotomy that separates our vertical, "sacred" relationships to God in prayer and our "profane" relationships to other human beings and to the entire material creation. For this reason I have chosen as the subject of our monthly teaching living the Mass. In the Mass the sacred and the secular converge as we believers fall down and adore the God-Man in matter. We are to become transfo...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

LIVING THE MASS The greatest,most thrilling moment of my life is when I stand before the altar of the Lord to offer the sacrifice of Christ to the Heavenly Father through His Spirit on behalf of God's people. What humility comes over me as I am swept up into the high-priestly offering of Christ! Yet whether one is a priest,deacon or lay-per-son,we are all called to the infinite privilege of assisting,even daily,in this eternal drama of God's infinite love for us in His dying and victoriously risen Son,Jesus Christ. Yet do we really understand what the Mass is all about? Do we realize it is a symbol that actually effects what it symbolizes in giving us the power to live the sacrifice and the sacrament of love of Christ in our daily lives? The Mass is the centering of the Trinity,meeting us in Christ Jesus in our time and space. It is the sacramental symbol of the goal of God's creation: a multiplied world in a unity of love,forming one Body of Christ in supreme worship and adoration ...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

CHRIST LIVING IN HIS MYSTICAL BODY The Church is Christ continuing to live in His Mystical Body. The sacrifice and prayer of the Church are the sacrifice and prayer of Christ Himself. The word in Greek,liturgy" is the name given to the act of taking part in the solemn,corporate worship of God by the priestly society of Christians,the Body of Christ. As members of Christ,we share in His priesthood. We must,then, share also in His prayer and self-oblation. The Liturgy or Mass is a community action of the people of God in union with their Head, Christ. It is never the priest's Mass or my "communion." All of us, priests,deacons,laity,with and through the one High-Priest,the ManGod,Jesus Christ,are called to enter into the common prayer of worship and adoration,petition,propitiation and thanksgiving. St. John Chrysostom describes with joy and enthusiasm the part the laity play in the performance of the mysteries of salvation: "I mention and insist on these things to excite the vigilance ...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

GOD'S PRESENCE TO US The Liturgy or Mass is both a source of theological learning and a form of vital action,for the worship of the Church is centered upon the self-revelation of God to mankind through the incarnation of the Son extended in time through sacramental prayer. God is present in three different ways. First,in Heaven where Christ reigns "at the right hand of God the Father," in His very human body,resurrected and glorious. This enthronement "at the right hand of God the Father, is explained in the ceremony of the consecration of a bishop: 'I say at the right hand of God the Father,not in a local sense,but in order to assert the external origin and glory which the Son possessed before His Incarnation,and retained unchanged after it. His holy humanity remains inseparable from Him and it will remain with Him forever....' When we consider God as our Creator and Master,as Providence and Judge,we always refer to this presence which is our own presence in God and with God: 'Your...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

THE CHRISTIAN PASSOVER At the Last Supper Jesus gave the ancient sacrifice and sacred meal (the Jewish Passover) anew meaning. Referring to His cruel death on the cross,He says to us daily in the Liturgy: "From now on I am that Passover lamb,sacrificed to deliver you figuratively from the slavery in Egypt and actually from all evil surrounding your daily life. Do this as a memorial of Me." St. Paul writes: "Christ,our Passover,has been sacrificed" (1 Cor 5:7). Our Eucharistic celebration is a Jewish Passover with anew meaning. We celebrate this action of Christ as a now freeing moment by Christ of us from all enslavement,especially from sin and death that eat away from within us God's divine presence and life. This necessitates ,therefore,our vital participation in a most prayerful,sincere way,that can never be finished with the end of the Mass. It is a call to live in that joyous freedom as children of God by embracing the cross of our own self-immolation to God in order to enter i...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

HOW TO CELEBRATE THE LITURGY We cannot truly celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ that are being commemorated in the Liturgy unless we move away from our own individualistic absorption to enter into the very mind of Christ as He,not only in His presence at the Last Supper and on the cross,but also now in His eucharistic presence as He dies and rises into glory. "Do this as a remembrance of me" (Lk 22:19) is a command of Christ to recall what He did,what He always is doing in liturgical time, and to do this in His presence and power. The celebration of Mass is,therefore,the action of Christ and His people,each taking his/her appointed place and role in His Body,of one heart and mind with Christ. As the Liturgy is made up of two main parts,the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist,so we are called to be instructed in His way of life,according to His revealed values, and then to put these values into action through the oneness experienced with Christ in His Fat...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

A BLESSING TO OTHERS In the Last Supper when Jesus first gave Himself to His Church-community as Eucharist,He gave a blessing. A blessing (in Hebrew berakah) in the Old Testament was a creative act,whether given by God to His people or to an individual or by an individual human person to another. God blesses His creation,all living creatures, above all,man and woman,and empowers them to be a similar creative blessing for all creatures given to man by God. You receive Christ's blessing that is His High-Priest prayer to the Heavenly Father that empowers you to leave the Mass and to become a blessing to others. Christ's prayer in the Mass is an effective one. It does not merely ask us,His to go back psychologically to the Last Supper and merely remember His great love. It is a prayer of perpetual effectiveness that you and I can go forth from the Liturgy to live Christ's death-resurrection in all our human relationships. We do not receive the Eucharist in order to speak pious sentiment...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

A EUCHARISTIC PRESENCE TO OTHERS The Eucharist is a sign,not only of our union with Jesus Christ and the Heavenly Father by the illumination of the Spirit of love,but, above all,of our union or our desire to lovingly work toward union with all mankind. But what precisely makes a Church-community a praying one? True community,according to Bernard Lonergan,is the "achievement of a common meaning." It is not fashioned by whim of circumstance nor does it arise simply from the accidents of geographical nearness. A true community is realized by a centration of wills in love,loyalty and faith upon a common vision. The common ideal of a Church-community is its point of active convergence of individual human beings who through faith in the indwelling presence of the Risen Jesus,under the impulse of the Holy Spirit,are on their way toward the Heavenly Father. It is an ideal that embraces all of humanity,eventually united around Christ. Yet in the Church men and women are already being gathere...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States

A COSMIC LITURGY It is almost a cliche to say that we live the way we pray and we pray the way we live. The quality of our prayer-life is the test of the worth of the rest of our life. The quality of our real participation of the Mass,the death-resurrection of Jesus Christ,is measured by our going forth from the community-prayer to complete it in our living. Prayer,especially true worship and adoration of God, is perfect only in doing-, in living according to the Father's salvific will. Prayer and the Eucharist can never be abstract or separated from our daily living. If it is true prayer,it must spring from our life and be expressed and completed in our life. St. Paul exhorts us:"...and worship him,l beg you,in a way that is worthy of thinking beings,by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice,truly pleasing to God" (Rm 12:1). The problem of how to pray and how to live is really the same problem. It is the same problem of how to celebrate the Mass and how to build the Body o...

Publication Title: Inscape Source: Boston College Country/State of Publication: Massachusetts, United States